Carnoules owes its name to its location, at the foot of a rocky hill. Its denomination is, indeed, derived from the Celtic word karn, which means stone mound, and its plural karniou, pile of stones, formed on the pre-Indo-European root kar (stone, rock). Crossed from east to west by a valley, the village of Carnoules is overlooked to the north by the crest of the Puits du Guerrier, which rises to 1,532 ft (467 m) above sea level. Carnoules also has several hills (Le Roucas 1,204 ft/367 m, Notre-Dame de la Vière 1,148 ft/350 m, Le Defens 1,210 ft/369 m) on its territory.